Chandigarh court issues summons to Rahul Gandhi

Chandigarh: A court here on Tuesday issued summons to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in a 21-month-old case of allegedly hurting religious sentiments of a section of people and asked him to appear before it Sep 19.

The summons will be issued to Gandhi by hand. Summons issued by the court earlier to Gandhi had remained unserved on eight occasions.

The case was filed by lawyer-activist Arvind Thakur against Gandhi in December 2011 for his speech in an election rally in Uttar Pradesh in which he allegedly made certain references to people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar going to other states to work and beg.

Gandhi, in his speech Nov 14, 2011, asked people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar about how long they would go to Maharashtra and Punjab to beg and for work.

Thakur, in his petition, claimed that Gandhi hurt the sentiments of people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar working in these states.